Arabic, Chinese teaching debate should end after Mahama’s clarification – Asah-Asante

Political Science lecturer at the University of Ghana, Dr Kwame Asah-Asante, says President John Dramani Mahama’s clarification on the government’s position on the teaching of Arabic and Chinese in public schools should bring the matter to an end.

His comments follow President Mahama’s dismissal of claims that his government has approved a policy to introduce Arabic and Chinese as subjects in Ghana’s public schools.

Speaking on Joy FM’s Middaynews on Monday, September 14,Dr Asah-Asante said government policy is ultimately determined by the President, while ministers are responsible for implementing approved policies.

“I think there's a little hiccup here. The President has clarified it, so the matter must be put to rest, because policy is managed y the President, and the ministers are implementers of the policy,” he said.

He rejected suggestions that the differing public positions amounted to a policy disagreement between the President and the Education Minister, Haruna Iddrisu .

“Oh, there is no disagreement, because the policy will be taken by the President. It will go through the policy cycle, and people will be put at various stages to implement, and one of the implementers are the ministers,” he explained.

According to him, ministers do not have superior authority over government policy and are expected to implement decisions taken by government.

Dr Asah-Asante, however, raised concerns about the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NaCCA) proceeding with the training of teachers to teach Chinese at the basic school level despite the President’s clarification.

“A directive can be issued to NaCCA to stop immediately, so this is not much of a problem,” he said.

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DISCLAIMER: The Views, Comments, Opinions, Contributions and Statements made by Readers and Contributors on this platform do not necessarily represent the views or policy of Multimedia Group Limited.